Configuring an accelerometer with a USB 6009

[kemba]

I would like to configure a triaxial accelerometer with a USB 6009, how can I go about doing this and what is necessary for this to be done.

Accerometer has +5V dc power, +4V diferential or +4V single ended outputs, 8 wire connection. Its a silicon design, inc model 2422.

Thanks I'll appreciate your ideas..

[Thaison_V]

Hi Kemba,

It looks like that accelerometer model has 3 differential analog output voltages pairs to read and is powered by a inputing 5V.  You can measure each of the acceleration axis with a different analog input pair on the USB-6009 (ie the X pair can be measured by AI0 and AI4, Y by AI1 and AI5, etc).  As for the 5 V power, you can configure an analog output on the USB-6009 to output 5V, or the digital pins have a 5V output as well.  I'm assuming you are using LabVIEW and the DAQmx drivers to program your application, so you should be able to use analog measurement/generation examples that are shipped with the driver.  You can find these in LabVIEW by going to Help>>Find Examples, then browsing to Hardware Input And Output>>DAQmx>>Analog Measurements>>Voltage.  One you may want to start with is Cont Acq&Graph Voltage-Int Clk.vi.  You can configure this VI to acquire the voltage of each axis by selecting the appropriate channels in the Physical Channels control.  As for outputting the voltage, browse to Hardware Input And Output>>DAQmx>>Analog Generation>>Voltage.  Since you only need to output 1 voltage value, check out the Gen Voltage Update.vi.

Thaison Verasiri
Application Engineer
National Instruments

[devchander]

But thalison, that sensor has power dissipation of 350mW,

is this ok with the USB 6009 card?

[Michael.Phillips]

devchander,

Why do you think that would be a problem as long as the input voltage range of the device is not exceeded? 

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

I think devchandler's point (please correct me if I'm wrong) was trying to power the accelerometer with 5V from an analog or digital output. 0.35W/5V = 70mA, far beyond what the max output current rating of these outputs are. I would suggest using the dedicated external +5V output provided (200mA max)

[kemba]

The power dissipation is 250mW.

[Michael.Phillips]

I see. So the external output can push 1W -- more than enough for the sensor.